IFAF World championship Israel 2021 Group B

So group A is wrapped. Now is the place to start with group B. An exciting group of six, where almost all have been participants on the most significant level of flag football. 

Austria is a flag football powerhouse. They won World championships in 2002, 2004, and 2012! Their national league is one of the top 5 in Europe, so talent is always there. Head coach Michael Salamon will try to win a ticket to the World Games. 

The Austrians have great players in Klostenburg Indians, Vienna Vipers, Spartans, Styrian Studs, etc. We didn’t find names on the list, but we think it will be similar to the European championship in 2020 and the World cup 2018. It will be fun to watch DB Florian Turetschek, who gets himself into a tournament defence team in the last World Championship in Panama; Benjamin Wolf and Max Hillebrand from Klostenburg Indians should watch out the Austrian backfield, especially against speedsters from Panama. Probably the #1 position at the QB will be taken by Felix Wasshuber, from Vienna Vipers, who got himself into the all-star team of the 2021 season. Lukas Göschl from Styrian Studs should be in the mix for some reps at the WR, with Sebastian Marolt from the Vipers. Everything will depend on the team chemistry, but we think Austria is quickly punching their ticket to the World games in 2022 and heading for that gold medal they lost against USA 19-13 in the 2018 finals. 

There is a lot to say about Panama. Their flag football league is growing every year, and both women and men are striving for that gold. Panama man team is getting bigger, stronger and better every international tournament and this year, they are hungry for something bigger. They think that this year could be the contenders. Last WC 2018, they played on the home turf in Panama, and they finished 7th. 

 Joel “Turbo” Rogers is probably their best player. A shifty receiver could land his spot in the all-tournament team with his abilities. The floor general will be his Team from Bulldogs Alvaro Roux, a QB to watch. Great strong arm, good precision and perfect sets of skills for reading “the room”. In offence, we expect a lot from Jorge Luis Avila, who plays for probably the second-best team in the Panama Tune squad. 

Jose Mexil, a defensive back, went in 2021 from the Cyclons to Bulldogs. And he is one of THE defenders in Panama. He is quick, he is shifty, he can cover zone, man, you name it. Panama has a tone of quality in athletes who can play both ways. Hugo Prepville is also one of those players, so it will be interesting if the stars align for this World Cup for Panama. What will be if will be we will have to wait and see. But they are a small darkhorse team that can take a medal. 

Flag football as a sport is growing in Russia. It is growing so big that even tackle players started to play the sport to get a chance and be a participant at the World championship. While we think they have enough power and athleticism in their ranks, we don’t believe Team Neutral can take second place. Panama and Austria are just too big for them at the moment, but only time will tell. 

Aleksei Lebedev is likely starting QB (while Lev Petukhov took an HC vacancy at the Team Belarus in the same group!). The lefty from Moscow Tough Nuts has a ton of experience playing almost every international tournament there is. He was also a QB at the last European championship for Russia, where they won 1 game at the regular stage. 

All eyes will be on Georgy Tokarev, who has still juice in his legs. His best game was against Denmark, where he scored two touchdowns. Zombie star WR will be an essential factor for this Russia offence. The second WR star in Team Neutral has to be Victor Fatukhin. Sparrows MVP had a tremendous season in the Russian flag football league. He will be stepping in huge shoes at the biggest stage of flag football, and the “rookie” has a lot to prove! There will also be one more Sparrow at the team neutral who has to be a considerable playmaker to help clinch the 2nd spot in the group. Dima Fomichev is one of the promising DB’s in Europe, and it is going to be very interesting to see how he will cope with some of the stars such as Rogers or Göschl in this group. 

We know very little about Korea because every info we could get was in the Korean language. The last time they competed was the 2016 World Championship in Miami, and they lost a lot of games, including that for the 10th place against Japan. About their playing style is much similar to Japan, with a lot of trick plays and running. 

Jaesick Park, the head coach of Korea, landed in an adamant group. The Koreans have some athletes with some speed in their legs, and we are sure they have a least one of two playmakers. But at the end of the day, everything depends on the QB. 

If they built the team around tackle players who are young and athletic, they should not have any difficulties getting that 4th place in this group. But for anything more, we don’t think they have enough manpower. 

The last time India played was in 2018. And they went home without points. So the revenge is here. The players from the India national team hit the gym and started working out, so this year will show that they can win. And they are progressing nicely. As far as we can see on their Instagram account. 

Veera Manikanta Reddy Gade, an Indian star, will bring their team to a better place than the last time. Ketan Joga is probably their fastest player, so he will show his way to the defences as a fitness freak. Ron Banda will fill the spot as a QB1. He has the speed, he has the footwork, and he has a good arm. Maybe we will see some plays from the Indian National Team with the double handoff where the QB can run. 

We know a little less about their defence, but they will show it to us in less than three weeks. With putting a lot of effort into it and if they had some friendly matches to be game fit, maybe they can even upset the 4th place Korea. 

Belarus will be a rookie at the World cup stage. Their national league is not yet strong, but we believe that with this event and the possibilities with the Olympic games in 2028, many Belarussians will start playing flag football. You never know with those small countries and the American football as a sport. You can always find players in the USA with the descent of their “home” country who played some tackle. And you can quickly get ballers. American football tackle version in Belarus is important. 

With Head coach at the realm of Belarus team Lev Petukhov, they will get experience and show a trick our two against everything. They are placed at the last spot on the paper, but if Philp Plotnikov as QB1 shows his potential and finds his favourite target open in Egor Medvedskiy, the points will be on the board. 

They are not the most athletic team in the World cup, but after this experience, we believe that they will show their true potential at the European championship. They have two solid DBs from Novopolotsk - Aleksandr Safonov and Eugine Morozov. They will be more than solid if they get the right amount of experience they need in the first two games. Flag football is a very tactical sport. Every incompletion will count. 

It will be interesting how the game against Team Neutral will go, but they also have a fair chance to get two wins against India and Korea. But we will have to see what kind of results they will get. 

Tomorrow we will post about group C. 

About group A you can read here. 

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